A Mountain Home man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after he injured a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper during a traffic stop in late 2017. A jury in Wright County in early December found 28-year-old Jordan Haden guilty of second-degree assault of a special victim and resisting arrest. Haden, whose wife is a state trooper in Missouri, had originally been charged with first-degree assault but the jury did not find enough evidence for that charge, and instead returned the guilty verdict on the second-degree charge.
The Ozark County Times reports Haden was arrested December 2, 2017 when he punched Cpl. Daniel Johnson in the face, breaking his jaw in two places and causing a brain injury. Cpl. Johnson had stopped Haden’s vehicle when he noticed it did not have a front license plate and the back license plate was homemade. During the stop, the trooper smelled alcohol and asked Haden to submit to sobriety tests, but he would not cooperate.
Photo courtesy of Ozark County Times
A former Gainesville resident currently in federal prison on sexual abuse charges will have to pay $22 million to his minor victim. A jury unanimously found in favor of the unnamed victim April 21 in a civil lawsuit against 70-year-old Tracy Todd Presson.
On March 26, Presson was sentenced in federal court to 70 years without parole after pleading guilty last year coercion and enticement of a minor and sexual exploitation of a minor. According to the Ozark County Times, local attorney Joshua Brown brought the civil suit on the victim’s behalf. Brown says the judgement was sought “to ensure that Mr. Presson did not profit from his relationship with the victim or the victim’s family.”
Rebecca Ruud
The Supreme Court of Missouri has overturned a circuit court’s ruling in a high-profile Ozark County murder case. According to the Ozark County Times, the Supreme Court sustained a writ of mandamus on April 6, meaning Circuit Judge Calvin Holden must allow an audio recording of a conversation between Rebecca Ruud of Theodosia and her public defender, Nina Lane into evidence.
Ruud is accused of murdering her daughter, 16-year-old Savannah Leckie, and disposing her body in a burn pile in Ozark County in the summer of 2017. Ozark County Prosecuting Attorney John Garrabrant and Anthony Michael Brown of the Missouri Attorney General’s Office represent the state in Ruud’s prosecution, and they were made aware of the recording when Ruud’s husband and co-defendant in the murder case, Robert Peat Jr., approached the prosecution for a “proffer of testimony” on Jan. 24, 2020. At that time, Peat was named a “cooperating individual for the state.”
Tuesday will be Election Day for municipal races in Missouri, but Gainesville residents and voters in the Dora and Thornfield school districts still have an opportunity to cast an absentee ballot. According to the Ozark County Times, the Ozark County Clerk’s Office will be open Monday from 8 to 5 for any looking to vote absentee.
Tuesday’s polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voters deciding on the Gainesville City Council race will cast their ballots in the Ozark County Courthouse. Incumbent East Ward Alderman Dana Crisp is being challenged by Debbie Miller. Shane Ledbetter did not refile for his West Ward seat, and no other candidate has filed. Residents of the ward may opt to write in a name for the seat.
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